Episode 145 – True Nature
by Afuhfuihgs
*
As the massive stone structure began to peek through the dense trees of the distant Whirlwind Forest, all the members of the Hero’s party were breathing heavily, trying to catch their breath.
Amidst the scattered husks and flesh, and the monster’s bloodstains that had dyed the branches, grass, and moss red, Mella plopped down without caring about getting her clothes dirty.
Jennifer quietly summoned a blade of wind, cut down a tree, and sat on the stump, staggering. Robin, too, leaned against a tree covered in bright red blood.
Lara, who was relatively less dirty from shooting enemies from the trees, was also exhausted and lay down on the branch she had been on, catching her breath.
Mella slowly looked around and said,
“Where’s Ed?”
At the same time, Ed emerged from the shadowy darkness between the trees, wiping the blood off his dagger.
However, the fat-filled blood of the monster was viscous and did not come off easily.
Frowning at the dagger, Ed grabbed his blood-soaked cloak, found the cleanest part, and wiped the dagger, saying,
“Mella, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Hehe, are you asking *me* if I’m hurt?”
“Looks like you’re fine, judging by your words.”
Ed smiled, bent down, kissed Mella’s hair that was scattered on the ground, and turned to look at Robin.
Robin, who had been catching his breath with his head down, slowly raised his head and looked at the huge stone castle in the distance.
Ed approached Robin.
“It’s a bitch, isn’t it?”
Robin also laughed hollowly and said,
“You look lively. Weren’t you slacking off, Ed?”
“Hey, just because you didn’t see me doesn’t mean I was playing around! While you were slicing up small fries, I was in the back taking down an ogre with a cannon on its back all by myself! We would have all died if I hadn’t taken that monster’s head off.”
Robin, with eyes wide like a rabbit, said with an absurd expression.
“Ugh, an ogre with a cannon? That’s insane.”
“Well, it seems like you guys were pretty busy too? How many showed up in total?”
“I don’t know, I stopped counting after two hundred, it got annoying.”
“Damn, that’s crazy.”
Robin planted his holy sword on the ground, using it as a support to straighten his posture, and nodded.
“The number of these monsters is proof that we’re going in the right direction, see that over there?”
At Robin’s words, Ed raised his head and looked at the building in the distance.
“Yeah, the Demon King’s castle. We’re almost there.”
“These monsters… the Demon King didn’t send them, Mella’s divine power is so great that they sensed her foreign presence and gathered on their own.”
“…Yeah.”
“Now do you see why I insisted on assassination?”
“…”
“Assassination is impossible without your power, Ed.”
“I know.”
Robin, watching Ed brush back his hair with a hardened expression, nudged Ed’s shoulder and said,
“I dreamed of retiring from thieving, but it turns out that skill will be used to slit the Demon King’s throat, right?”
“…Haha, fuck.”
At that moment, Mella’s voice was heard from afar.
“Ed, bad word!”
“…Sorry.”
Jennifer glanced at Mella and said, as if dumbfounded.
“Mella… just let the boys talk. If you’re too stifling, guys will hate you.”
“But… Ed is the prettiest when he uses pretty words.”
Ed sighed and said,
“At least tell me I’m cool.”
Ed took a breath and then looked up again at the Demon King’s castle with a tense expression.
Robin could feel a slight fear and hesitation in the trembling of Ed’s tightly closed lips.
Ed soon closed his eyes tightly.
After a few seconds, Ed nodded as if he had made up his mind and slowly opened his eyes, saying quietly.
“…Let’s do it.”
“…Yeah.”
Robin and Ed stared at the Demon King’s castle in silence.
Robin suddenly raised his holy sword high.
Brilliant white flames engulfed the holy sword, brightly illuminating the dim surroundings.
Just being in that light made my heart pound, my mind race, and I felt a surge of courage.
Robin said.
“Don’t worry too much, Ed.”
“Worry? Ha, what’s there to worry about when we’re barging into the Demon King’s house, who could toy with our entire party with just a wave of his hand, with our dirty feet?”
“Don’t be sarcastic.”
“…Haha.”
“The Hero-nim is with you, you know.”
Robin, with his golden hair fluttering and a pretty face smiling brightly, was truly an unparalleled pretty boy.
Ed looked at Robin’s face and smirked, saying,
“Yeah, Hero-nim.”
*
“Yeah, Hero-nim.”
Robin’s dubious expression completely crumbled at my answer.
I lifted my foot off Robin’s face and stomped hard on Robin’s eyes.
Robin squeezed his eyes shut, then slowly began to open them.
Robin’s tooth fragments, floating on the pitifully pooling blood, were crushed even smaller under my boot.
Robin squeezed his eyes shut again, perhaps because of the dust from my foot.
Tears could be seen seeping from between his tightly closed eyes, his brow furrowed deeply.
Was it because of the dust? Or was it because of the pain?
At least, it certainly wasn’t because of regret for what he had done.
Robin slowly opened his mouth.
“E, Ed… oh, good heavens…”
“…”
“Ugh, E… Ed, Ed…”
“What’s wrong? Can’t think of an excuse to say? Don’t just call my name, say something, Robin.”
“…Keuh.”
Robin bit his lip.
Indeed, what excuse could the man who betrayed and killed him, and even stole his lover, offer to the victim holding the knife?
The snake’s tongue, which had ruined the lives of so many people, could not utter a word and was only busy scooping out the constantly pooling blood from his mouth.
But I waited patiently.
Robin would soon fall into a hellish time anyway.
No matter what he did, the future that awaited him would not change.
If so, I could wait as long as he wanted for his last excuse.
His silence might only be a desperate attempt to postpone the pain to come, but that would be just a fleeting moment compared to the time of suffering he would endure.
However, the first to run out of patience was Lara.
Lara stomped on Robin’s back, shouting.
“Ed told you to talk!”
“Ugh!”
“Looks like you don’t want to talk? Well, nothing but nasty lies would come out of your disgusting tongue anyway!”
In fact, I was just curious about what this bastard would say, I didn’t really have anything I needed to hear from Robin.
The reason he betrayed me? I already know.
A sincere apology to me? I don’t expect that from Robin.
A miserable plea, begging for his life with his hands clasped together? It would be fortunate if it didn’t just add fuel to the fire of my rage.
Robin slowly turned around with a groan and said.
“…Lara…”
“Don’t call my name!!!”
Lara kicked Robin’s head.
I grabbed Lara’s arm, who was about to kick again, and stopped her.
“Stop it, Lara. You’ll kill him.”
“…Hah, hah.”
To soothe Lara, who was panting after moving just that much, I brushed back her disheveled hair.
Lara became docile, like a dog feeling its owner’s touch.
At that moment, Robin slowly began to speak in a cracked voice.
“…Hah, do you… think you have the right to do this to me…? Lara…”
“…What?”
“I don’t know… how you found out, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen…”
“…You fucking bastard, say one more word.”
Robin chuckled softly, making a sound like air escaping from his lungs.
Then, after spitting out blood once, he smiled.
He was still handsome, although his features had become somewhat bolder with age, but it was a chilling smile.
“In the end, you were in my arms, moaning and groaning, after I killed that idiot, weren’t you? Am I wrong?”
“You son of a bitch!”
“Look at you now, wagging your tail like a bitch to Ed. Wiggling your ass, you’re no different from a whore.”
I grabbed Lara’s arm as she tried to take out the bow she was carrying on her back.
Lara tried to shake off my hand with great force.
I pulled a chain from the wrist of the hand holding Lara’s arm and tightly wrapped it around Lara’s arm.
Lara looked at me, begging to be released.
Her face was filled with anger and injustice.
The passionate emotions that filled her body soon overflowed from Lara’s eyes.
Robin spat blood from his mouth and sneered at Lara.
“I betrayed Ed? Then what about you? You lived happily under me, who betrayed Ed, and then you betrayed me. How are you any different from me?”
“Shut up! Ugh!”
“And you.”
Robin slowly crawled along the ground, then approached the wall of the alley, raised himself up, and sat leaning against the wall, looking up at me.
There was no longer any fear or embarrassment in those two eyes.
The appearance of a trustworthy friend, a steadfast knight, or a politician trying to deceive his opponent had disappeared.
Only arrogance and contempt were purely emanating from his disgusting blue eyes.
Just as I had thrown away my mask, Robin seemed to have thrown away his last mask as well.
Funnily enough, it was only at this moment that I first encountered his true nature.
Robin spat out the blood that had pooled in his mouth once more and said.
“What’s so unfair about a guy who died a long time ago coming back now? Huh? Am I wrong, you fucking bastard?”
“…”
“20 years! 20 years! You son of a bitch.”
“…”
“You fucking piece of shit, I don’t know if you’re a ghost or what, but damn, what’s so important about your pathetic, miserable life and your grudge that you’re making such a fuss now? Huh? A bug who could only steal at best. I used you well, didn’t I? Then, shouldn’t you say, ‘Thank you’? Humanly speaking?”
“…”
“Am I wrong, you son of a bitch?”
“…”
“Are you angry? Why? Haha, this time you’ve gone mute? Huh? Why don’t you say something, huh? You fucking monster.”
Amidst Robin’s desperate accusations, Lara screamed.
“Ed! Stop! Don’t listen anymore! Let me kill him! Please, please, Ed!”
I stood silently, listening to all of Robin’s words.
Robin saw my appearance and raised the corners of his mouth, revealing an even more hideous sneer.
“Ah, that’s right.”
“…”
“Mella.”
“Stop it! Ed, don’t listen anymore! Don’t listen to that son of a bitch anymore!”
Lara ran into my arms and desperately tried to cover my ears with her remaining hand.
With a hardened expression, I lengthened the chain and then pulled it back, suppressing Lara.
Robin splattered blood like saliva as he ranted.
“Do you even know? How sexy that bitch’s body is? Wow, how the hell did she become a Saintess with that body?”
“…”
“I wanted to show you how deliciously she sucks my dick in front of your withered corpse, but that’s a shame? What if you want to see it now? You eunuch bastard?”
“…Ed, stop… why are you still listening to that bullshit…”
“Wow- fuck. Mella’s got a mouth down between her legs too, swallowing my dick water gulp gulp, it was fucking awesome, and she said she loved me the most, do you even know that?”
“…”
“Do you even know what kind of expression Mella had back then? You idiot.”
[……]
[For someone like that to be a Hero, it’s the end of the world.]
The divine power lost its words at Robin’s disgust and vulgarity, and the Demon King was shocked.
The personality of the divine power, which was no different from a copy of Mella’s personality 20 years ago, tried hard to hold back at Robin’s description, but eventually couldn’t hold back and burst into tears.
She… to a human like that…
She seemed to be trying to suppress her sobs, but it didn’t seem to be working.
The sound of Mella’s mournful voice sobbing and swallowing tears could be heard.
[…Ugh, hic, sob.]
[It’s not your fault.]
[Heeuh, h… sob sob…]
[…]
‘…’
Ulgaros asked me.
[…Ed, why are you just listening to that bullshit?]
‘…Well, I’m just seeing how far he’ll go.’
I replied in a listless tone.
I could fully understand Lara’s actions of trying to cover my ears.
She was the one who had seen my soul, tormented by the near-torturous pain of the results that had already unfolded in this cruel world, most closely over the past few months.
She must have been worried that I would be thrown back into that hellish time again.
But surprisingly, Robin’s vulgar and disgusting remarks did not give me any feelings.
I had been in great pain for the past year, a little less since I was resurrected.
I had been suffering from mental pain that even the undead’s body, which could not feel pain, could not withstand.
The time when the lamentation did not end was eating away at me, to the point of taking away all my will.
There were more than a few times when I even wanted to abandon revenge and just go towards death.
But now, I was surprisingly calm.
The pain that shook my will to its core had changed me.
Perhaps the reason I helped people with all sorts of excuses was not because I was originally kind, as Lara, who had a crush on me, said, but because I wanted to find someone to care about, even a little.
So, despite my miserable and broken state, I may have been doing my best to be kind to those around me.
When I sorted out all my feelings with Mella a while ago,
When I decided not to avoid Lara’s advances,
It was then that I finally became immune to such cheap provocations.
I was able to shake off all the past that had happened to me and stand up.
And now that the terrible pain that shook my will no longer had any effect on me and had disappeared, there was only one thing left for me.
To finish the revenge.
“For 20 years, Mella saw my dick until she was sick of it! It’s all over! You idiot, you’re too late! What are you going to do now? Huh? You fucking bastard.”
“No.”
“…Ha, he’s finally opening his mouth, the idiot.”
I took something out of a large pouch tied behind my belt.
Robin recognized what it was.
“…What are you trying to do?”
“It’s not too late, Robin.”
“What?”
I slowly approached Robin and said.
Sensing something ominous, Robin staggered and tried to get up.
However, dozens of chains that had pierced through the clothes on my shoulders, arms, and chest tightly bound Robin’s entire body.
It looked like his whole body was covered in chains, with only his head exposed.
“The higher you’ve built, the more rewarding it is to destroy.”
“Why, why are you coming at me with that! Ed! You fucking bastard!”
I raised what I was holding above my head and slammed it hard into Robin’s head.
“Even after 20 years, my revenge is not too late.”
.
0 Comments